Introduction:
The use of car seats in Romania continues to be low. 2020 Cluj County Traffic Police Reports revealed that 40% of child passengers involved in car crashes were not using any type of restraints. The proportion of children travelling restrained declines with age, children older than 5 being at higher risk. Existing research evidence showed that there is a need to increase correct child restraints (Dulf et al, 2020), while new technologies, like mobile apps, are starting to become an important tool in increasing these rates as demonstrated by an RCT conducted in two children’s emergency hospitals (Gielen et al, 2018).

Objectives:
In July 2022, the Child Car Safety (CCS) App was launched to support parents in improving their car safety behaviours for child passengers. The app is available in Romanian and in English. This research aims to evaluate the process and the impact of the CCS app by testing its usability and by measuring self-reported changes in child restraints practices by parents, after using the CCS app. The work on developing and improving the app is on-going and is considered for incorporating other well-being aspects for children. Partial results are presented.

Methods:
The app will be evaluated by using the System Usability Scale and a survey to measure changes in parents’ car safety behaviors after using the app. The evaluation is planned for April - May 2023. The app already has two integrated feedback components, measuring the likelihood of recommending the app on a scale to 1 to 5 and a feedback section where users can share their opinions.

Results:
Since the launch of the app on July 28, 2022, a total of 2584 successful accounts were created. A number of 1510 parents assigned a car seat to their child’s profile, using seat label scan feature. Currently, half of the accounts remained over time. On March 3rd, 2023, a notification was sent to 1284 users, whilst the app has around 480 active users, over one month period. Partial results, measuring the likelihood of recommending the app is 4,7 out of 5, based on 211 respondents.

Conclusions: The Child Car Safety App is built on research-evidence, as an accessible tool to increase parents’ knowledge and awareness on appropriate child safety restraints use, providing them with guided information, notifications, and verification methods to check seat compliance.

Keywords: child passenger safety, mobile application

Other info:  Ramona Brad, White Cross Foundation, Bucharest, Romania, Atsani Ariobowo, Global Road Safety Partnership, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva, Switzerland, Anca Daniela Aron, Linnify, Cluj-Napoca, Romania